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I'm late to this party, showing up right in time for Reed's first "mature" record. It is probably true as Chris Roberts says, that Reed became "less of a myth, more of an Everyman...it sacrificed what made his music better than good and more than music." However, this shift also kept him alive, moving away from the drinking/drugs that indeed most probably led to his fatal liver failure 35 years later. When you hear those familiar Velvet Underground guitar tones/pacing and chords on "The Gun," you can see why the devoted breathed a sigh of joy - that Lou Reed was back. Additionally, the lyrics were as daring as you could hope for.

"I get a thrill from punishment - I've always been that way." The title track wields a mighty wallop, with lyrics that are about the sado-masochistic desires of a born victim of a man. (He seeks spiritual and physical obliteration - a more extreme cousin of 'Venus in Furs'. The tormenters that he embrace say "dirt is what you are and clean is what you're not, you deserve to be soundly beat." Then it escalates toward the obliteration/martyrdom he longs for. Whether this song is connected to chemical/alcohol self-destructive behavior or general guilt/shame, I cannot say. (Reed always did project an aura of strength, so we'll only have clues...) It's another example of how Reed could find treasure in the abject.

It's these two key tracks, along with 'Our House' and 'Underneath the Bottle' that reach me. If this was the "mature" Lou Reed, that's OK by me. We didn't need another (bizarre)'Take No Prisoners' or an uncharacteristic, unprofessional and quite possibly drunk "Dirt.") Anyway, we'd get another chance for a divisive "Metal Machine Music." It goes by the name of "Lulu."

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